Hard Alley Protestors Issue Press Release
by Alphaville Herald on 28/11/09 at 1:59 pm
16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence visits Hard Alley in Second Life
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
Yesterday, about a dozen ham shaped avatars staged a protest in Hard Alley – a notorious role play sex sim – to warn against the objectification of women in the virtual world of Second Life. Could this the beginning of a wave of activism in the virtual realm – or will the Hard Alley property owners simply smile and enjoy the traffic boost?
Here is the text of the press release Scylla Rhiadra sent to the Herald's iMojo3Gs newswire:
WOMEN ARE NOT MEAT: A PROTEST AT HARD ALLEY IN OPPOSITION TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.
As a part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, a series of events to promote an end to violence against women being held in Second Life from 25 November to 10 December, a broad coalition of activist groups in SL staged a performance protest at Hard Alley on 27 November.
Hard Alley was chosen because it is one of the most popular sims in SL featuring animations, poses, and products that depict violence against women, including rape, bondage, and violent physical abuse. Such depictions desensitize users to the violence that they represent; they "normalize" the rape and sexual abuse of women by asserting that these things are not merely "fun," but also sexually arousing. By doing so, they impact upon real life attitudes towards a horrendous social blight that annually leaves millions of women across the world traumatized, psychologically and physically scarred or injured, or even dead. Any activity that trivializes or seems to validate real life violence of women is intolerable. This protest was staged to make it clear that our society should not, indeed must not, tolerate it.
As residents of Second Life, we recognize that role play here is "consensual," and that the simulation of rape or other forms of violence against women is NOT the same as real life abuse. At the same time, however, we also understand that images and behaviours here do impact upon first life attitudes and practices, just as the images in any media, electronic or otherwise do. The media, and in particular interactive and "social" media such as Second Life, have an enormous impact, for both good and ill, upon societal values. Our protest here was both in opposition to the misogyny reflected by the form of role playing encouraged at this sim, and a forceful statement of our own commitment to ending the attitudes that sanction or create violence against women.
Because a founding principle of feminism is nonviolent activism, we chose a form of protest that was appropriately peaceful. We were not there to "attack" the sim, nor to grief it or its users. We did not spam visitors here, nor abuse them individually. We are protestors, not griefers.
We chose to represent ourselves as "meat," because this is the most appropriate metaphor to describe the attitude towards women and their bodies endorsed by the activities of places like Hard Alley. We also chose this means of protest to show that, while we take the issue of violence against women very seriously indeed, we also have a sense of humour and playfulness. The joy of shared laughter is one of our most potent weapons against the sort of hatred towards women exemplified by sims like Hard Alley.
More information on the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence can be found online at: http://slactivists.ning.com/
Scylla Rhiadra
Nov 28th, 2009
“Could this the beginning of a wave of activism in the virtual realm . . .?”
Yes, I think so. And in some measure, because activist groups in SL are larger than ever, and more united than they were before. This particular protest (and at its height, we had nearer to 40 people on the sim than a dozen, although the talking “hams” were in a minority) was the result of cooperation between about 6 different groups.
Key to these protests is ensuring that they remain peaceful, as this one was. It’s important that protests be recognized as such, and not as raids by griefers; these are about education, not about disruption. It’s an index of how peaceful this one was that, despite the presence of sim security throughout, we were allowed to continue the protest for something like 40 minutes. And that is also, strange though it may sound, an acknowledgment by me of the fairness and patience of those monitoring the sim at the time of the protest: they have my respect for recognizing that we were there to talk, and not to disrupt.
LittleLostLinden
Nov 28th, 2009
I went to the protest and nobody was there. I wanted to talk to the protesters to get their side, but there were none. I’ll have to try again later.
Sacha Kessel
Nov 28th, 2009
That one piece of meat has a hot set of tits on her.
Seriously though? Um, how many women ACTUALLY play women there?
LittleMe Jewell
Nov 28th, 2009
I’m sorry, but I find it totally comical to see cartoon characters protesting what other cartoon characters CHOOSE to do with their cartoon bodies.
Deepgoat
Nov 28th, 2009
The avatar they are using is an old one, originally created for the griefer group “W-hat” to use in raids on sims. It shocks me that these people would so willingly associate themselves with known griefers.
brandon
Nov 28th, 2009
Scylla you have really lost it this time. Give it a break. Your like lias one of those rabid anti kid or short people avis. Your a dog on a bone who just doesnt get it.
Maybe you do need a good roleplay cat burgler rape in Hard Alleys finest hovel. You might find it fun even. You can even dress as a tbone steak so I have something to eat after I’m done. ha. After that we can hop over to the forced breeding sims and make you pop out a few torus or sphere babies. Then we can run to the bondage ranch spot and you can tie me up and tickle me with a feather.
Yeah thats an idea, go protest at bondage ranch, see how long you last.
What a joke. “Oh no! My avatar is violated, it will never pixelate again the way it was.”
Give me a freaking break.
brandon
Nov 28th, 2009
Btw I hoped you and your lost causes registered as a scripted agents for the 40 minutes you were on the sim. Otherwise I can ar you for this time spent as a traffic violation. In Fact I will.
CheerGirl Allen
Nov 28th, 2009
I was not on the sim for the protest, if I was, I would have just laughed at them and then thanked them for all the press and traffic they have created for us at Hard Alley. The Owner and Managers would to point out since the press releases and blogs have popped up regarding this, the traffic on the hard alley sim has shot up, as well as new Group membership and new roleplayers.
Now lets have a look at the protestors own facts, thier website boasts that 50+ avatars showed up to protest, Uh.. ok where were they? Even the pictures posted only show at most 15.. and not all of them are even protesting. Secondly, again looking at the protestors own website, they claim to want to stop violence against women in RL, yet the very next cause being promoted is a very Pro-Palestinian millitant article. Even going as far as to Praise groups such as Hamas and Al Asqua Martyrs Brigade. This is intresting considering the track record of thoes two groups towards equal rights for women as well as the treatment of thier multiple wives.
Hard Rust
Nov 28th, 2009
There was a protest at Hard Alley? If I had known, I would have thrown up some barricades and called extra duty cops and we could have had a great riot!
Goatse Linden
Nov 28th, 2009
shut up brandon
Megz Ling
Nov 28th, 2009
Thank you, SLactivists, for the traffic boost. Hard Alley owes you one. Swing by later and we’ll set you up with a free gang bang.
Anonymous
Nov 28th, 2009
No mention of this particular protest appears on the official Second Life Activist Network site linked in the article, but the ham avatar by Victor Spoonhammer is a favorite of W-Hat for their griefing expeditions. Surely Pixeleen wouldn’t let her well known friendships with W-Hat interfere with her reporting on a legitimate and well-intentioned social change-oriented group holding reasonable educational events? Is making this cheap, stupid, old joke about a group of ham avis protesting a sex sim instead of highlighting the legitimate and non-inflammatory actions of SLAN really going to benefit the Herald in the long run? Because people are more likely to click on the “Ads by Google” on a site that ridicules the well-intentioned than a site that tries to support them?
Coke Supply
Nov 29th, 2009
It sure can be a strange world, either virtual or real. While I fully support the reasons behind the protest, I have to marvel at the double standards of human society.
I watched Saving Private Ryan lately, which shows countless scores of men being brutally murdered, blown apart by bombs, burning to death, drowning and being riddled with bullets. It got a lot of Oscars.
Scylla Rhiadra
Nov 29th, 2009
@Brandon
“Maybe you do need a good roleplay cat burgler rape in Hard Alleys finest hovel.”
My thanks Brandon, for making it clearer than I ever could the need to challenge attitudes towards rape in SL. Oh, and let’s not pretend it would be consensual, ok?
@Cheergirl
Just to clarify, it is the SL Left Unity web site to which you refer. The SL Left Unity is *NOT* the “protester’s own web site”: the SLLU was only one (albeit certainly an important one) of a number of organizations that were represented at this protest, which was the result of a broad based coalition of activist groups. The organizers and participants included women and men from such groups as Stop the Violence against Women, Amnesty International-E, Four Bridges, Peace Train, the SLLU Feminist Network, and many others.
I am a member of the SLLU myself: I am VERY proud of the strong support that this organization gave to this protest. But those protesting represented a very wide range of political opinion, drawn from all of these groups and others, and constituting a coalition of people who, whatever there other differences, care about violence against women. Unlike, it appears, you.
It is simply a cheap scare tactic to point to one group in this coalition and, by distorting what it stands for, use it smear the protest as a whole.
@Deepgoat (& anonymous)
The ham avatars were chosen simply because they were free, transferable, and . . . funny. Had we known of the association with W-Hat, I doubt that we would have used them. In any case, the nature of the protest itself should have made clear the distinction between griefing and legitimate protest.
@Hard
It is sadly typical of the nature and function of your sim that your response to a peaceful protest is to wish that you had been able to respond violently. Thanks for being so predictable.
@Coke
I can’t disagree, although I think that there is an argument to be made that “artistic” representations of violence are rather different than what goes on in Hard Alley. Saving Private Ryan uses extreme violence, at least putatively, to make an anti-war statement; Hard Alley is certainly not employing rape sim to critique violence against women in RL.
Sam
Nov 29th, 2009
You showed up in a privately owned sim with the intent to disrupt activities there because you disagree with their content. That is griefing. There is no right to protest involved here because it was private land. you cannot protest in someone’s living room just because you disagree with what (-legal and consensual-) activities that person may enjoy there. what you did was griefing. not a protest. in addition, what your calling for is censorship. what is your next step? waving signs in the front lawn of every consenting RL couple that like to play with rope occasionally? what you were “protesting” was in no way the violence you are so motivated to fight. In short you have no right to decide what two (or more) consenting adults do with each other.
Whisper Dallagio
Nov 29th, 2009
@ Hard Rust same lame comment you left on the blog here http://slleftunity.blogspot.com/2009/11/for-immediate-release.html This time round your a bit smarter and don’t show all your ignorance. We are not and were not there to be violent, that is what we oppose.
@ Brandon, why would our presence be a traffic violation? Is yours? What if we were there for our free ‘gang bang’ from Megz Ling would that be a violation? Your pathetic in your defense of atrocities whether pixels or not real people are involved or you wouldn’t get your sick pleasure from it.
@ Cheergirl maybe you have never seen 50 avs at once, but it is impossible to get them all in one screen shot. People were moving around and being ejected.
@ LittleMe Jewell and brandon are you not a real person behind your AV? Don’t you participate in the RP because it makes ‘you’ have some sort of emotional and physical response? If not why bother to do it at all? Try and be honest. The first time I was attacked in SL my ‘cartoon’ body didn’t know what the hell was happening but my REAL brain knew I was in danger and being violated. I had a full blown Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome episode from that joke on my cartoon body. I thought I was really losing it until I met a man, and asked him about his experiences that way, btw he also suffers from PTSS and he said yes it affects him the same. So don’t tell me when your raping someone it doesn’t matter, it does or you wouldn’t do it or participate in it.
Coke Supply
Nov 29th, 2009
Scylla, your point is well recieved and understood but my point was that simulated rape in a virtual world platform does not “glorify violence towards women” any more than a movie about World War Two “glorifies violence towards men”. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that the more sensible amongst us would always prefer not to see places like Hard Alley exist in SL, myself included, but at the end of the day such activities cannot take place without the mutual consent of both parties, and therein lies the essence of the argument – if it is consensual then I feel that it is not my place to pass judgement, however distasteful the activity may seem. For example, I do not like BDSM but I would not personally protest in a BDSM sim claiming that it glorifies slavery. If other people wish to mutually engage in such activities in SL, then that is their business, however wrong it seems to us bystanders. It might not be attractive to the rest of us but who are we to encroach on the freedoms of two consenting adults?
The reasons behind the protest are sound and I fully support the philosophies the protests are based on, but it just seems to me that it’s a bit pointless to protest against the activities of Hard Alley when those activities can only happen with the consent of all participants.
For what it’s worth, I still think they are all a bunch of sick bastards though.
Isobellyjellybean
Nov 29th, 2009
I attended the protest; definitely more there than reported when I arrived. The reaction to the protest was a mixture of polite argument and “Let’s rape a protestor. Grunt. Grunt.” I am sure that visitors to this sim keep an eye on the RL door because their partners/wives would bludgeon them if they were discovered coming to Hard Alley. I suspect that the visitors here have pretty dysfunctional sex lives, though. Soft Alley would be a better sim name.
I was shocked to read that the ham avatars are associated with groups that griefed in the past. I was rather pleased with the overall effect of the feathered dress and flapper headband I was wearing. I am now furiously investigating whether these items are owned by someone with a traffic violation or unreturned library books. If they are, I am tainted forever.
The first thing I did upon arriving was to look at the people there to work out who was a visitor and who was a protestor. From what people said, virtually all of the men there were visitors. As for the women there, the ones that were not there to protest, but to be raped, all looked like the girl next door…if you lived next to a brothel.
I do not buy into the “it’s only pixels” argument. I won’t go into whether the encounters there take place between a RL pair of men, one of each gender, or a RL pair of women. I think it is fair to assume that a simulated rape there will nearly always involve one RL man. He goes to that sim and takes part in a simulated assault. His arousal will overcome any worries that the woman is not a woman. In his mind, he has roleplayed rape with a woman that finds the idea erotic. Her “No! No! No!” is insincere. The man logs off and then re-enters RL with a heightened belief that women secretly want to be raped. That, for me, is the objectionable part of Soft Alley and such cesspits. Women do not want to be raped. The definition of rape has to feature a lack of consent.
SL could be such a creative resource. It saddens me that so much of it is dedicated to sex. It is a thankful thing that one of these people did not live thousands of years ago and was the ancient person that invented the wheel one day. He’d have judged it upon whether it was of sexual interest, stuck his bits in it, decided it chafed and would have thrown it over the nearest hedge. We would still be walking everywhere.
I apologise for the lengthy post. It may have intruded upon someone’s SL sexy time. The truth is I type quickly because it is so much easier if your keyboard is not sticky.
At0m0 Beerbaum
Nov 29th, 2009
^^^^^ everyone above this post is mentally retarded ^^^^^
Lol Ham avatars, needs more top hats.
Also yes, sporting a ham avatar makes you a griefer. pfft.
vvvvv everyone below this post is mentally deficient vvvvv
brandon
Nov 29th, 2009
Your all just plain looney! HOLY CRAP with a cherry nipple on top. Post tramatic stress, my cartoon body, my poor mind? Are you even allowed out on weekends? Honestly are you that fucked in the head you beleive this crap your spewing? No, make it Griefing! You are griefing. You even have DOCUMENTED your griefing and as such I think a AR after the fact needs to be filed. If thats even possible.
I don’t play in hard alley never have. Never cared to.
But you obviously know much more about it than me. Me and my sick twisted needs and desires.
Listen here little lady girl. You don’t have a clue what I like. But I will defend the right to enjoy it ‘if’ I wanted to, the same as you can be a douchebag cumslut and I can’t say a word about it as well. Your stepping into a hornets nest deary and you had better have on some really thick clothes.
See that word DEFEND up there? Thats what I did. I defended your right to be a cumslut and not be putdown for it. I killed people with my bare hands fighting for this country so you could be a feminazi and spew stupidity. I had friends blown up and killed for you. Don’t fucking look around for someone else. YOU I am talking to YOU Scywhatever your godamm name was. You OWE me for your right to even be aive possibly. I have seen and done things far far worse than your pathetic little cartoon body will ever endure all in the name of what this country stands for.
So don’t lecture me you worthless piece of female flesh. Bow to those who have kept you safe all these years, give thanks and pray to god men like us aren’t ever needed again in numbers.
Coronado ST-5
Jessi Castaignede
Nov 29th, 2009
I operate the Star Sapphire Core in SL. It is a group of women in SL that take on the role of super powered woemn, based on a character in the Green Lantern Comic book. However, we also like to help with real issues, and this is one of them.
The Hard Alley area is a tough place to try to judge. If most people DO go there consentually, how do we say it is a bad thing? Well, sometimes a ‘play’ can end up wanting more, almost to a ‘real’ feeling.
When i first started in SL, i was at a sandbox, where, my character was transported into a spaceship. not in control, my avi was tied down, and the male characters inside began to touch me. I TP’d out of the area before they could do more, but somehow they were able to control me and simulate an attack without my consent.
This would be my concern as to where this could lead to.
UndoneChaos Enoch
Nov 29th, 2009
OK, we more than understood this is electronic media. We understand this pixel universe is not RL. However, like any form of media it has the ability to not only reflect real life but also to influence.
My guess is that no one who has posted their argument against the protest would find it acceptable to have a region open to the KKK? In fact, I am sure the vast majority of those who opposed the protest would be out and hyper-vigilant for a protest against a region which would endorse and encourage the hate of marginalized groups. Why would a region which endorses the rape of women (BTW-this is an act of violence) not be subject to the same criticism?
Also, the number of women and men who attended was much larger than a dozen. At some points we were a little spread out over the region. My guess is the reporter was either their very early or very late. The thing is, this was a multi-group effort with as many as 6 human rights groups and their leaders involved.
Furthermore, yes I do understand that some women very willingly participate in this region. Our efforts were not to humiliate these women (or men playing women), nor was it to humiliate the men who engage in RP in the region. It was to spark some critical thought over an issue.
Persephone Bolero
Nov 29th, 2009
Everyone should keep in mind that these protesters do not speak for all women. Many of us are rational and do not resort to hysterical reactions to fantasies between consenting adults.
The press release acknowledges that the activities in Hard Alley are consensual and then uses the apocryphal claim that, even though they’re consensual, it somehow inspires real life, non-consensual violence against women in the real world. And this is pure nonsense. In the past decade, rates of rape and ALL crime have been rapidly decreasing every single year. Yet, this is all during a time of a massive proliferation of violent video games, and the internet has made pornography widely available and easily accessible to just about anyone with an internet connection. If SL rape fantasies were causing real life rape, wouldn’t we be seeing an increase in the rates of rape in America and across the world? Yet, we’re not. In fact, quite the opposite.
This is the same argument the Christian Right uses against pornography and video games. None of these groups are ever sincerely concerned about addressing real problems. They simply want to find a way to rationalize stopping people from doing what they don’t want them to be doing. It’s perfectly fine for them to use non-violent protests and to babble on with their hysterical campaign under the guise of protecting women against real life rape. I fully encourage them to continue their crusade against their imaginary causes to real problems. But like the rape in SL, these protests are all just a bunch of fantasies between consenting adults. Nothing to be alarmed about.
みみか 王
Nov 29th, 2009
“At the same time, however, we also understand that images and behaviours here do impact upon first life attitudes and practices, …” Do you have any evidence for that? Please note that common sense is not evidence, and individual case studies are very weak evidence.
dickhead w. bush
Nov 29th, 2009
Brandon, shut the fuck up, you brashly impertinent redneck!
Scylla Rhiadra
Nov 29th, 2009
@Sam
We had no “intent” to disrupt, nor, in fact, did we in any way interfere with the activities of anybody on the sim. Anyone who stopped what they were doing after we arrived did so only, I suspect, out of curiousity or — more pointedly — embarrassment.
This was not about “censorship”: no one at the protest called for a ban on rape sims, nor do I, speaking personally, advocate one. We came with the intent of drawing attention to the RL implications of the simulation of rape in SL. I am very pleased to say that a number of people there entered into a discussion with us on that subject; one even came back with us to continue a civil discussion after the protest ended.
@Coke
Thank you for your response — and please let me say how very nice it is to engage in a discussion on this with someone who disagrees without feeling the need to throw around expletives and insults.
The real problem with the analogy between a movie and role playing is, I think, that the latter is interactive and participatory, not (like watching a movie) essentially passive. There are all sorts of ramifications from this. Role playing is an enormously powerful thing, which is why it is used by mental health professionals (among others) as a therapeutic tool. I don’t think we are anywhere near to understanding the real emotional effects of role playing something as deeply affective and traumatic as rape, but I do know, having spoken to a number of people who do engage in this kind of thing, that they find it immensely moving and (to use their own frequently-appled term) “liberating.” That such “liberation” is derived from simulating such a violent and hurtful behaviour worries me at a great many levels.
But let me give you a more concrete reason why the participatory nature of role playing is different. Rape RP IS consensual, of course. What that means is that every time a female avi (whether representing an RL woman or not) clicks on “Accept,” she is sending the explicit message that women find rape arousing and sexual exciting. It’s not such a huge leap to go from there to the view that women WANT to be raped.
@Brandon
Sorry, wrong country. Whoever you “killed people with [your] bare hands” for, it was not, thank god, for me, or on my behalf.
In all seriousness, however, let me point out that the deep deep misogyny and violence of your language suggests that at the very LEAST you could use some work on anger management. I don’t know whether this might be the result of PTSD or not, but I can say this: in RL, you’d scare the living shit out of me. And the really frightening thing is that you’d probably find that a turn on.
Darkley Aeon
Nov 29th, 2009
Could you point me in the direction which shows links between cartoon violence/virtual violence and RL violence please?
Brandon Lindman
Nov 29th, 2009
I would like to disassociate myself from the comments made by another “Brandon” earlier in this thread. I did not post it.
I hope there is nobody anywhere that does not consider rape, or non-consensual sex of any name intolerable, immoral, and disgusting. I would murder anyone who raped a woman in my family in cold blood in front of God and everybody. It is not only violence against the body, but it damages the soul of the person and leaves them with a scar that never completely heals. For both women and male prisoners who have been victims of rape, and for all of us men that are honorable and protect and defend women, I wish we could eradicate it entirely.
I find the the logic of this protest, however, to be unsound. It’s a heck of a leap from SL role play to RL rape. I don’t buy it. People who rape do it for completely different reasons than people who role play – both in RL and SL.
ALSO, I hope the people involved in this are equally concerned about males who are raped, otherwise it’s nothing but misandry (strange I had to add that to the Firefox dictionary). In fact, boys who are raped often grow up to be abusive themselves. Prevention being worth the time, there should be more effort in that area – especially by feminists.
ALSO, role play is free speech. If the protesters did not have free speech themselves they wouldn’t be able to protest anything.
I applaud the effort, but consider the misdirection an error; hurting, rather than helping, an important cause.
LittleLostLinden
Nov 29th, 2009
I would like to know what time these protests are taking place, as I want to go there to laugh at the hams.
After that, I will have a delicious meal of green eggs and ham……Sam I am.
Senban Babii
Nov 29th, 2009
@みみか 王
“At the same time, however, we also understand that images and behaviours here do impact upon first life attitudes and practices, …” Do you have any evidence for that? Please note that common sense is not evidence, and individual case studies are very weak evidence.”
Will this do for starters?
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VH7-4B2CMD0-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1114177712&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2f5a5fdb95768bce514d574c5d25694b
“These cognitions involve rapists’ attitudes and beliefs about sex (e.g., rape-supportive beliefs, sexual preoccupation, and hypersexuality), their sexual scripts (including fantasies and sexual plans), and their beliefs about appropriate masculinity (i.e., hypermasculinity). This model proposes that acquaintance and incarcerated rapists are linked by a common belief system. These cognitions provide justifications of rape for the potential rapist by promoting sexual narcissism and by suggesting women’s complicity in rape. They give rapists a sense of entitlement and aid in the planning and preparation for rape. They also encourage rapists’ denial and minimization of rape.”
plot tracer
Nov 29th, 2009
A couple of things…
As someone who was at the demo… I counted at least 50 demonstrators there.
And regarding the SLLU… we were there as part of this demo. SLLU are proud to call the women who organised this demo sisters in peaceful activism.
Siri Vita
Nov 29th, 2009
I participated in this protest to highlight a key point. That the participants in the creation of these violent simulations much as the creators of extreme pornography that includes depictions of rape, torture and mutilation for the purpose of sexual arousal, are having an impact on RL behavior and attitudes. The concept of this being a protest against “consensual rape” is ludicrous. There is no such thing as “consensual rape”. The only thing the parties that participate in these actions are consenting to is the creation of violent extreme immersive experiences and pornography.
Do they technically have a legal right to do so? i guess, since they’re doing it. Is it damaging? I think so and believe I have a right to say so. To those that say “lighten up, this is just a game”, I have to say “wake up this has real consequences”. I would like to refer those who would like more info. on the subject of the effects of extreme pornography to the following link:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/280907a.pdf
The fact that people may have fantasies about bondage and forced sex is not in question. A fantasy is a fantasy when it’s in your head. The RL impact of creating images and immersive experiences that psychologically reinforce those behaviors and attitudes in a positive way is the question we wanted to highlight and discuss.
leddo
Nov 29th, 2009
On friday the 27th of November a protest was organised at the rape and sexual violence role play sim ‘Hard Alley’. Those participating wanted to make a peaceful statement that representations of violence against women and the conflation of sex with sexual violence contibute to the the normalising and legitimising of violence against women.
As the person organising the protest I’d appreciate it if any complaints could be directed to me, as I used various groups within SL to publicise the event and know others have taken criticism because of that.
There have been accusations of censorship, of ignoring the consensual aspects of the roleplay there, of thought policing, of judging individual ‘kinks’ and sexual expressions; all of which are oft repeated mantras in any debates about pornography and it’s impact on women.
I would ask you to consider that fact that any time we raise our voices on this issue we are told to be quiet, and to reflect on who really is advocating censorship in this scenario?
I would encourage you to think about notions of consent and how immersion in a culture that routinely objectifies and dehumanises women (and sometimes our experiences of trauma) impacts our sense of self and our sexual expression.
I would ask you to reflect why there is a proliferation of ,and demand for, sites in second life (and of course online in general) specialising in offering pornography and the accompanying role play facilities across the spectrum of violence against women including: trafficking of women; rape; sexual assault; gang rape & pseudo child pornography?
Hard Alley and similar sims are, in my view, a monument to misogyny; 3D hate speech communicating loudly about the worth and position of women. They play a part in both influencing and reinforcing attitudes about VAW and contribute to a climate in which sexual violence is not taken seriously.
A last question to you. If we are thinking more and more of effective prevention strategies to stop violence against women; strategies which increasingly seek to challenge attitudes, which challenge rape myths, which focus on education and re-education, are areas like hard alley part of the solution or part of the problem?
Below are some statistics on violence against women, information on studies about attitudes and women blaming and info about the impact of pornography on attitudes.
Zero Tolerance research carried out in 1998 found that 1 in 2 boys and 1 in 3 girls believed that it was acceptable for a man to force a woman to have sex in certain circumstances.
In Scotland, only 3.7% (up slightly this year from 2.9%) of rapes recorded by the police currently lead to a conviction
Scottish Executive research (2007)
• 27% of people think a woman can be at least partly responsible if she is drunk at the
time of the attack
• 26% thought a woman bore some responsibility if she wore revealing clothing
• 32% say there should be some burden of responsibility if a woman is flirting
• 18% think rape can be a woman’s fault if she is known to have had many sexual
partners
Amnesty research (2005):
• over a third of people believe a woman is totally or partially responsible for being
raped if she has behaved in a ‘flirtatious’ manner
• 28% believe she is totally or partially responsible if she is drunk
• 27% believe she is totally or partially responsible if she is wearing ‘sexy or revealing’
clothing
• 25% believe she is totally or partially responsible if she has had many sexual partners
Approximately every minute the police receive a call for assistance in cases of domestic violence (over 570,000 calls per annum) Stanko, 2000 ‘The Day to Count’
“Snapshot” Survey, UK
1 in 6 (16%) of women have been subjected to sexual violence by a former husband/co-habitant Lundgren, Heimer, Westerstrand & Kalliokoski (2002) Swedish Study of men’s violence against women (1999-2000)
1 in 4 women have experienced rape or attempted rape Painter, 1991 Survey of 1,007 women in 11 cities, Northern England
1 in 3 women have experienced a sexual assault Statistics Canada, 1993a Telephone survey of a random sample of 12,300 women (the largest survey of its kind worldwide)
1 in 3 (33%) of women had been touched against their will, and prevelance rates were highest among adolescent girls i.e. 1 in 2 (49%) Coker-Appiah & Cusack, 1999 Ghana National Study on Violence 1998,survey of 2,069 women and girls suplemented by a five-year review of official records.
91% of women who were assaulted told no-one of their experience Painter, 1991 Survey of 1,007 women in 11 cities,
Northern England
pornography:
Allen et al., (1995b) reviewed 24 studies with a total sample size of 4,268 (listed in Annex E). These aimed to test whether exposure to violent pornography under laboratory conditions was associated with increased acceptance of rape myths.
Included studies had to involve the use of a measure of some type of rape myth acceptance (RMA), i.e. an examination of attitudes toward rape or the use of force against women in a sexual context. Examples of RMA scales used in included studies were:
‘sexual callousness;
attitudes towards inter-personal violence;
adversarial sexual beliefs;
perceptions of rape harm to victim;
willingness to rape; or
combinations of such scales’ (p 13).
This meta-analysis found that for the included experimental studies:
violent pornography increased the acceptance of rape myths consistently in experimental settings across all included studies;
non-violent pornography also increased rape myth acceptance; but violent pornography increased rape myth acceptance more than non-violent pornography (p 19).
These increases were statistically significant.
Malamuth (1981a) investigated rape fantasies as a function of exposure to sexually violent pornography with 29 male students who were initially classified on the basis of questionnaire responses as sexually force oriented or non-force oriented, then randomly assigned to exposure to rape or mutually consenting sexual material and subsequently asked to create their own fantasies. Self-reported sexual arousal during the fantasy period indicated that those who had been classified as force-oriented created more arousing fantasies after having been exposed to the rape material, while those classified as non-force oriented created fantasies associated with the consensual sexual material. These findings were statistically signifi cant. They also reported greater likelihood to commit rape and an increase in rape fantasies as measured by penile tumescence and self-report, irrespective of their force orientation (p 33).
Malamuth, Haber and Feshbach (1980) explored the effects of exposure to sexual violence on 53 male and 38 female students’ reactions to rape by exposing them first to either a sadomasochistic or a non-violent version of the same sexual passage and then to a portrayal of rape at knife point with threats to cut the victim (p 124). The study found a statistically significant ‘proclivity to rape’ amongst male subjects based on their perceptions of the victim’s pain. There was a significant correlation between self-reported tendency to commit rape and sexual arousal to both the sado masochism and the rape depictions. Fifty-one per cent of the male subjects said there was some likelihood they would do what was depicted if they could be sure of getting away with it, and 17 per cent would do so without that assurance (p 121).
Malamuth and Check (1983) reported on a study involving 145 male students exposed to depictions of sexually violent material in which the victim was either consenting or not consenting (p 57).They found that those who had scored high on likelihood to rape experienced greater arousal to the non-consenting sexual violence, both on the self-report measure and on the penile tumescence measure. These fi ndings were statistically significant and showed that a minority of the population who were high scorers for likelihood to rape were more sexually aroused to…rape depictions (p 65).
Check and Guloien (1989) compared the effects of exposure to pornography defined as sexually explicit material which is violent (woman portrayed as enjoying rape) or non-violent but dehumanising and degrading, or non-violent and non-degrading on 117 male college students and 319 male non-student city residents. Statistically significant differences were found between subjects exposed to violent, and dehumanising pornography and subjects in the no-exposure condition, in terms of reported likelihood of rape and likelihood of forcing a woman into unwanted sex acts, with more than twice as many men in the exposure group reporting this. Interaction tests revealed that these effects occurred primarily for high P [psychoticism] scorers. High P scorers in general were also found to be ‘more accepting of rape myths, have higher reported likelihoods of raping and forcing women into unwanted sex acts, and reported actually committing more acts of sexual aggression than did low P scorers’ (p 177).
Malamuth and Check (1985) reported additional findings from their study of 145 college males, that those exposed to a non-consenting woman’s rape arousal depiction subsequently believed that a greater percentage of women would both enjoy being raped and enjoy being forced to do something sexual than subjects who were exposed to a non-consenting woman’s rape disgust depiction. These fi ndings were statistically significant. They also found that men with relatively higher inclinations to aggress against women were particularly likely to be affected by…depictions of rape myths’ (p 299).
Ohbuchi, Ikeda and Takeuchi (1994) found in a sample of 72 male students that those with a high rape proclivity strongly believed rape myths such as women desire to be raped and enjoy it. A study by Norris et al. (1999) involving 119 males recruited from the local community found that a combination of ‘hyper-masculinity’ and alcohol consumption under laboratory conditions interacted with a rape myth text of a woman portrayed consuming alcohol and experiencing pleasure being raped. This combination of factors acted to reduce subjects’ empathy for the rape victim. In both of these studies the effects were statistically significant
The two meta-analyses by Allen et al. (1995a and 1995b) found statistically significant negative effects associated with both sexually violent and non-violent material including sexual callousness, adversarial sexual beliefs, perceptions of harm to rape victims and self-reported willingness to rape (Allen, D’Alessio and Brezgel 1995a, p 271; Allen et al., 1995b, p 21). This was also found in the three further meta-analyses summarised later in this report: Allen, D’Alessio and Emmers-Sommers, 1999 pp. 42-44) on sex offenders; Oddone-Paolucci et al (2000 pp 52-53) on all pornography published between 1962 and 1995; and Hald et al., (2006 p 36) on non-experimental studies.
Zillmann and Bryant (1982) found in a sample of 80 male and 80 female students, a statistically significant association between exposure to pornographic material and the trivialisation of rape (recommendations of significantly shorter prison terms for rapists) and a process of desensitisation resulting in increased male sexual callousness towards women. Milburn, Mather and Conrad (2000) examined the effects of exposure to non-violent pornographic material on the effects of exposure to sexually violent pornographic material with 137 male and female students and found that males who previously viewed the sexually objectifying material felt that the victim in the date rape scenario experienced pleasure and ‘got what she wanted’ (p 645). These findings were statistically significant.
The REA identified five surveys of a total of 3786 male students, all of which involved at least some extreme pornographic material. Three compared the effects between pornographic material depicting explicit serious sexual violence and explicit serious violence in a sexual context, and non-extreme material.
In these studies extreme pornographic material included: rape involving both physical and sexual violence (Garcia, 1986, pp 379-380); violent [material] (which included bondage, torture and mutilation, and whipping, spanking or beating) and sexually violent rape and gang rape (Demaré, Briere and Lips, 1988, pp 143-144); and ‘material depicting bondage, whipping and spanking without an explicit lack of consent [and] … rape in which force is used and there is an explicit lack of consent’ (Boeringer, 1994, p 291).
These studies found statistically significant correlations between exposure to sexually violent material of this nature amongst these samples and pro-rape attitudes and rape proclivity. Garcia (1986) found in a sample of 115 male students that ‘correlations with the attitude towards rape measures were statistically signifi cant and consistent with the idea that subjects with greater exposure to violent sexual materials endorsed beliefs that can be classified as a pro-rape orientation to a greater extent than subjects not exposed as much to these stimuli’ (p 383).
Demaré, Briere and Lips (1988) found in a sample of 222 male students that 27 per cent reported a likelihood of raping or using force against a woman, and that ‘the use of sexually violent pornography and acceptance of interpersonal violence against women were uniquely associated with self-reported likelihood of using force or rape’ (p 140). These findings were statistically significant.
Posted: 21 November 2005
The poll, ‘Sexual Assault Research’, published today (21 November 2005) as part of Amnesty International’s ‘Stop Violence Against Women’ campaign, shows that similar “blame culture” attitudes exist over clothing, drinking, perceived promiscuity, personal safety and whether a woman has clearly said “no” to the man. For instance, more than a quarter (26%) of those asked said that they thought a women was partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was wearing sexy or revealing clothing, and more than one in five (22%) held the same view if a woman had had many sexual partners.
Around one in 12 people (8%) believed that a woman was totally responsible for being raped if she’d had many sexual partners. Similarly, more than a quarter of people (30%) said that a woman was partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was drunk, and more than a third (37%) held the same view if the woman had failed to clearly say “no” to the man.
Changes in the law relating to consent mean that an alleged rapist must show that they had taken reasonable steps to ensure that the other person had consented to sex. In this respect the poll exposes a gap between the law and public attitudes. Amnesty International UK Kate Allen said: “This poll shows that a disturbingly large proportion of the public blame women themselves for being raped. “It is shocking that so many people will lay the blame for being raped at the feet of women themselves and the government must launch a new drive to counteract this sexist ‘blame culture’.” The poll also shows that the vast majority of the British population has no idea how many women are raped every year in the UK, with 96% of those polled saying they either didn’t know the true extent of rape or that they thought it was far lower than the true figure.
Only 4% of respondents even thought the number of women raped exceeds 10,000 per year when the true figure is likely to be well in excess of 50,000:
* Six out of seven people either said they didn’t know that only 5.6% of rapes reported to the police currently result in conviction or believed the conviction rate to be far higher.
* The average estimate was of a 26% conviction rate, nearly fives times higher than the actual rate.
Kate Allen added: “In addition to uncovering disturbing attitudes over women being ‘to blame’, this poll also reveals the scale of public ignorance of the unacceptably high numbers of women raped every year in the UK as well as the dreadfully low conviction rates. “The government has an international duty to prevent this gross human rights violation yet it’s clear that the government’s policies on tackling rape are failing and failing badly.
“These findings should act as a wake-up call to the government to urgently tackle the triple problem of the high incidence of rape, low conviction rates and a sexist blame culture.”
stats link
http://www.cwasu.org/page_display.asp?pageid=STATS&pagekey=15
pornography research link
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/280907a.pdf
Mako Mabellon
Nov 29th, 2009
Isobellyjellybean: those hams aren’t just created by the trolling group W-Hat – they’re an old and instantly recognizable symbol of theirs. (I think it’s some kind of running joke…)
Sam: of course they’re calling for censorship. The whole point of this particular branch of feminism is the use of censorship as a method of social control; that’s not exactly a big secret.
glad to see this
Nov 29th, 2009
It’s great to see other people taking this sort of behavior seriously. Of course, the opposition is hollering censorship, as usual, despite the fact that this behavior clearly impacts how people behave in real life. If people did not fantasize about rape and other such degenerate behavior then no one would be doing it. So this attitude does result in increased incidents of horrific acts of sexual misconduct occurring. No one can dispute that fact.
Persephone Bolero
Nov 29th, 2009
@ Mako
“These findings should act as a wake-up call to the government to urgently tackle the triple problem of the high incidence of rape, low conviction rates and a sexist blame culture.”
To all those who pull out these studies that link pornography with violence, I hate to tell you this, but these were completely debunked. We are currently participating in a massive social experiment with the creation of the internet. This has brought into millions of homes massive amounts of pornography, violent imagery (ie rotten.com), and a wide range of other content that allegedly was going to push all men to become crazed, unruly, raping zombies. Yet, it didn’t happen. In fact, the opposite happened.
Steve Chapman wrote in 2007, “…the United States alone has a staggering 244 million Web pages featuring erotic fare. One Nielsen survey found that one out of every four users say they visited adult sites in the last month….Since 1993, violent crime in America has dropped by 58 percent. But the progress in this one realm has been especially dramatic. ****Rape is down 72 percent and other sexual assaults have fallen by 68 percent.*** Even in the last two years, when the FBI reported upticks in violent crime, the number of rapes continued to fall.” (emphasis added)
If violent imagery and pornography caused rape, then logic would suggest that a rapid rise in rape would follow a rapid rise in erotic and violent content. Many researchers, who aren’t blinded by politically correct, ideologically driven agendas, are starting to consider the possibility that such material actually *reduces* rape by allowing for a safe outlet for innocuous sexual impulses that only become deviant if not given such safe outlets.
This is a wake up call for individual liberty. Sex-negative feminist ideals actually undermine society by hijacking gender equality to advance a conservative war on freedeom of expression. It’s high time these kinds of feminists realize that their predictions utterly failed to pan out. You were simply wrong. End of story.
For more on the truth about pornography, see this much more reasonable article unencumbered by anti-free speech agendas:
http://reason.com/archives/2007/11/05/is-pornography-a-catalyst-of-s
A Furry
Nov 29th, 2009
I was there earlier today trying to get yiffed for some L$ and was shot at by people with human avatars.
Skye Donardson
Nov 29th, 2009
The thing I don’t understand about this protest is this. You protested in a sim where you probably weren’t wanted, where the actions that take place there are done with the consent of those that participate, and who probably didn’t give a crap what you had to say in the first place, but were maybe too polite (oddly enough) to say so.
Instead of lagging up and pissing off a bunch of people who are more than happy to do what they do within their own environment, why not set up a series of seminars in a neutral location to talk about your concerns to those that are interested in what you have to say, and willing to listen?
This protest seems to have had as much impact as beating your head against a wall. You end up with a headache, and the wall couldn’t care less.
UndoneChaos Enoch
Nov 29th, 2009
Actually Skye, I think we did achieve out goal, and that was getting people to talk about the issues at hand.
This wasn’t about winning or loosing, it was not about humiliating, it was not about censorship (though that seems to consistently be the word shouted by those individuals afraid of having an obligatorily masturbation toy taken away).
It was about providing information and resources regarding a very difficult subject. It was about the conceptualization of how these activities encourage hate crimes.
And yes, as seen above from Leddo, there is a link between being exposed to this form of media and how real world perception towards violence against women changes. There are consequences for behavior, but there is always a payoff for engaging in behavior(in this case rape).
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=89476111&m=89476091
LittleLostLinden
Nov 29th, 2009
Hello Leddo.
I read your spam.
I dislike spam.
Move along.
Siri Vita
Nov 29th, 2009
To those that state this protest was futile, it opened this dialogue and will perhaps lead some to actually examine the resources provided and fully understand the impact of their actions.
@ Persephone. You state that every study cited has been debunked. Really? By who and where? That is an assertion that is simply not true.
I certainly don’t think the citations below are from sources with “anti-free speech agendas”. I am certainly pro freedom of information and in that spirit put forth some more information with which to debunk your “end of story” analysis of this discussion.
Russell, Diana. “Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm.” Seventh International Congress of Women.
http://www.skk.uit.no/WW99/papers/Russell_Diana_E_H.pdf
Catherine Itzin, Ann Taket, and Liz Kelly. “Evidence of Harm Relating to Use of Extreme Pornography Material: A Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA).” [Great Britain], Ministry of Justice. 2007.
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/280907a.pdf
A very well researched and comprehensive study, in PDF form. One of it’s three “key findings” is that “The R[apid] E[vidence] A[ssessment] supports the existence of some harmful effects from extreme pornography on some who access it. These included increased risk of developing pro-rape attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, and committing sexual offences. Although this was also true of some pornography which did not meet the extreme pornography threshold, it showed that the effects of extreme pornography were more serious.” It also concludes that “Men who are predisposed to aggression, or have a history of sexual and other aggression were more susceptible to the influence of extreme pornographic material. This was corroborated by a number of different studies using different methods and different samples.”
The Aurora Center. “Research On Pornography.” University of Minnesota
http://www1.umn.edu/aurora/pdf/ResearchOnPornography.pdf
A brief but very well-documented summary of effects of porn; it includes some discussion of the notion that porn can “undermine some potential victims’ abilities to avoid or resist rape.”
“A Study Proves That Media Can Subtly Induce Society To Justify Violence Against Women.” Medical News Today (20 Mar 2009).
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/143012.php
An abstract of a scholarly article that points to the influence of “media” beyond narrowly-defined forms of pornography.
Skye Donardson
Nov 29th, 2009
So, why do you not also discuss violence against men? Women who beat their husbands…men who have been raped? Why only protest violence against women? Are men not worthy of any such attention? Shouldn’t they be given the same recognition?
I’m sure the incidents happen a lot more than anyone realizes, because even *more* men are less apt to report them than women are. This has always been my frustration with a lot of the feminist…stuff. They concern themselves only with women, but not with the human race as one unit. Shouldn’t we all be working together as a whole to make the world a better place, instead of just concentrating on one portion of society?
And I’m asking these questions as a woman who has been in an abusive relationship, and later raped by the man who abused me. I’ve been through it, and know how devastating it can be no matter what gender you happen to be.
LittleLostLinden
Nov 29th, 2009
Hello Siri Vita.
Thank you for your spam.
Have a good day.
Persephone Bolero
Nov 29th, 2009
@Siri
Not a single one of your studies answers this very clear question. And I’ll make it real simple so you don’t miss it this time.
***If indeed erotic and violent imagery causes violence, why is there a rapid decrease in violence against women at a time there is a rapid *increase* in the proliferation of erotic and violent material via the internet?***
Did you catch it that time?
While there are peer reviewed studies showing some kinds of correlations to aggressive behavior and exposure to violent material, it didn’t pan out when society became saturated with it. So, yes, that pretty much debunks those studies. At the very least, you’d have to admit it raises some serious doubts about their validity.
Let me point you to research, which actually *did* consider this fact, as opposed to those politically motivated researchers who didn’t even want to look at rape statistics. I provided a link to an article that discussed the work, and apparently you didn’t even bother to look at it. But here’s a summary from the article.
Clemson University economist Todd Kendall suggests that adult fare on the Internet may essentially inoculate against sexual assaults. In a paper presented at Stanford Law School in 2006, he reported that, after adjusting for other differences, states where Internet access expanded the fastest saw rape decline the most. A 10 percent increase in Internet access, Kendall found, typically meant a 7.3 percent reduction in the number of reported rapes. For other types of crime, he found no correlation with Web use. What this research suggests is that sexual urges play a big role in the incidence of rape — and that pornographic Web sites provide a harmless way for potential predators to satisfy those desires.
In other words, this material may actually be reducing rape. If true, the protestors are actually encouraging rape by encouraging the supression of innocous impulses that, when unsatisfied, express themselves as violent, deviant behavior. Think about that.
Scylla Rhiadra
Nov 30th, 2009
@Senban
Nice reference. Thanks for that: I hadn’t read that one before.
@Skye
UndoneChaos has, I think, answered your question. Not only were we able to engage with a few people at the sim in reasonable civil dialogue on this issue, but one man from the sim actually left with us, and continued to discuss the matter after the protest.
And, of course, we continue to discuss it here. Overall, a very satisfactory exercise.
To answer your second question, feminists ARE interested in the welfare of men. Our stand is against violence of ALL sorts: this protest was organized as part of an international event entitled “16 Days of Activism against GENDER Violence.” Of course men are subjected to violence and rape (although most usually by other men). What is more, they are themselves horribly maimed by a culture of violence that enables rape. Everyone is involved as a victim here, and everyone is part of the solution.
@LittleLostLinden
leddo’s post, far from being spam, is probably the most informative post that the SL Herald has ever seen. And this IS about information. Or would you rather people just shriek at each other?
@Persephone
Interesting choice of “unencumbered” article. It is published by “reason.com,” which is in turn run by the right-wing libertarian think tank, Reason Foundation. The latter is funded massively by a handful of conservative foundations, and a smattering of private corporations. Articles for “reason.com” are commissioned (it “rarely accepts unsolicited manuscripts”) and, most importantly, are NOT peer reviewed. They are, in other words, written-to-order articles intended to advance a right wing political agenda. Any scholar using an article from this source would be laughed out of the room.
This is in contrast to those cited here by leddo and others, which are conducted by scholars; almost all of these were peer reviewed before being published.
Takuya Kawashima
Nov 30th, 2009
This is probably the end of my newly found friendship with Scylla but the whole discussion here seems to be a bit far off so I feel compelled to add my two cents. Sorry Scylla, it was nice as long as it lasted
Yes, I’m a roleplayer. No I’m not a mean rapist in RL. I’m not sick either, I respect women, I even think they are superior to men in many regards but yet I enjoy some roleplay in SL’s dark and gritty places whenever I am bored at work or my wife is on a business trip. No, I am not the kind who secretly plays behind her back, I actually RP with her and her best friend. I’m not in SL to make the wet dreams of bored suburban housewives come true or the homo-erotic fantasies of bank clerks dressed in mini skirts and Stiletto Moody shoes pretending to be women in SL. Cause that’s what you get when you go to Hard Alley. I’d love to see that place wiped off of SL’s maps but it’s there, people enjoy it, I avoid it. I consider that adult behavior.
When you roleplay you have a certain storyline in mind. The development of this storyline strongly depends on the RP qualities of your fellow players. That’s why I don’t RP with strangers but rather with people I know well. Those are women who are extremely tough in RL, chicks whose most lethal weapon is their brains and they are witty and creative enough tu turn my nicely laid out storyline by 180° degrees and give me hell. They are far from being weak victims and I am far from being the dominant winner. It’s a give and take, a true exchange and requires brains, skills and creativity. I don’t see how any of that might make me fit in the ‘potential RL rapist’ category. Just because I roleplay for some hours a week doesn’t mean I actually have forced sex fantasies in RL. In fact I think that every man who forces sex upon a woman or another man (and I seriously miss this point in your protests and discussions) deserves to have his penis chopped off, not more and not less.
Concerning your studies and researches I must say that I don’t trust any study I haven’t faked myself. The result of a study strongly depends on who wanted it to be done. Take for example the discussion whether cell phones positively contribute to brain tumors. Those studies prepared by environmental activist groups will clearly show there is a direct relation; those done by cell phone producers or network providers will prove there is no direct link. As usual, the answer lies in the middle.
The point that really made me frown was the porn discussion. You might want to broaden your horizon by reading ‘Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women’ by Susan Faludi, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and yes, a woman! Watching porn doesn’t shape your attitude towards how you treat women. This is like the old argument in the 70s that listening to AC/DC makes you worship the devil…
Are women in SL being objectified? Are they treated like meat? Well, yes, to a certain extent. But forgive me for being so blunt to say that it’s for a large part a homemade problem. A lot of women come to SL and suddenly they are all tall and slim, the suburban housewife turns into mini-skirt wearing high-heeled sex goddess and behaves like a slut. Seriously, women in SL can be much worse, direct and aggressive than the worst macho. Hit me up in world and I can send you some chat logs and you will suddenly be ashamed to belong to the same gender. And there’s the large proportion of men playing with female avis who contribute to the general ‘sluttification’ of female players just because they act as they would want their dream woman to act.
And though I fully support the general idea of protesting against violence against women, the whole thing lacks some substance. It is based on assumptions rather than on facts, the generalization of ‘roleplayer = RL rapist’, the omission of male victims when discussing physical and psychological abuse etc make the whole thing seem a little – excuse this wording but that’s how I feel it – childish!
And brandon, you little psychopathic fuck… you’re the best proof that nerve gas explosions obviously have a severe negative impact on your brain functions. Next time you go out to kill people with bare hands and protect your country, you might want to keep the minimum safety distance to any chemical or biological weapon you use against your enemies. Seriously, man, have your head checked!
Whisper Dallagio
Nov 30th, 2009
Persephone, do you have anything to back your claims? Valid arguments need valid citations. If there really is a Todd Kendall, link to his work or cite it. What may have been written three years ago may not hold today. And NO one is encouraging rape even in the wildest imaginations, now you have simply stooped to pure hate rhetoric and it’s obvious in your tone. Correlations involving violence seen on television and other media and increased aggressive behavior goes clear back to the 60′s with the classic Bobo doll studies, conducted by Alfred Bandera. http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/bandura.htm
To who ever is responsible for ‘moderating’ this blog, I am shocked at the language of abuse you are allowing. Intelligent discourse with opposing view points can be held without reverting to utter vulgarity if all parties involved have the intelligence to use language other than simple profanity.
YoursTruly
Nov 30th, 2009
http://yournymph.blogspot.com/2009/11/good-laugh.html
Zachary Dumart
Nov 30th, 2009
All across Second Life, there are sims dedicated to pretty much anything you can imagine. There are sims dedicated to combat, war, the American Old west, and urban decay and gang violence. My question is simple: where are the protests for these? Is rape somehow worse than getting blown to bits in war? Is there something inherently A-OK with pretending to shoot a rival crack dealer in the head, but inherently evil with pretending to get some rough sex in a dark alley? Is pretending to tie someone up and whip them just more “bad” than pretending to rip them to shreds with your Neko claws?
All these would be “bad” things in the real world. But they get RP’d in a visceral way as a kind of release. It’s the nature of roleplaying games, you live out something that you wouldn’t really want in the real world, going all the way back to kids playing cowboys and indians in the back yard. Does anyone really think a kid would WANT to get shot by a bow an arrow? Of course not. He’s playing. He’s pretending.
The real question is this – since when is rape somehow the WORST THING THAT CAN EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE EVER? Ask someone who’s lost a limb to a Somali warlord if maybe he would have preferred being used a sex slave for a few hours instead of only having one arm for the rest of his life. Ask someone who’s soldier daughter was killed by a Taliban sniper if it would have been okay if she had been raped and brought home alive instead. Ask an indian kid who’s been blinded by a cigarette because the leader of the beggars knows it warrants more sympathy and money if he would have preferred to perform a little felatio instead.
Rape, real world, REAL rape is a horrible, horrible thing. And real world rapists should have their wangs blown off by shotguns. But lets stop putting this crime at the highest point of human atrocities. It’s not. And every day, those more-horrible atrocities are played out in Second Life, WoW, Grand Theft Auto and Halo. But there’s no protests for that. Why? Because they don’t involve that most evil of evils, the unholy of all unholies… RAEEEP! “It makes women sad and feel icky, therefore it’s just awful I tells ya! Oh, that kid who just got shot in a drive-by while eating ice cream on the front porch? Terribly sad. But there was no RAPE so it’s not that bad.”
I’m a staunch liberal and I often wonder why american can’t see the wisdom of a lot of liberal policies. And I know it’s because of stuff like this. Middle america sees this crap and gets turned off by all liberals. This thought-police bullshit is as bad as anything the christian right throws out. Worse, it’s right in line with them. Strange bedfellows indeed.
I fully agree that the decrease in Rapes over the last 10 years is EXACTLY because of the pervasiveness of porn on the internet. Potential rapists watches porn, potential rapist masturbates, potential rapist goes and takes a nap instead. Rape happens when society is MORE repressed, not less.
For the record, I’ve had a lot of sex in Hard Alley. And a lot of it has been “rough” or “forced” – and after it was done, the women in question (and yeah, thanks to voice, I know they WERE women), each told me they had a good time. And that this was a safe way to enact a fantasy and keep it there – as a fantasy. In fact, I would hazzard to say that there are far more women hanging out at Hard Alley who know what they want than there are men who know how to give it to them. The ultimate irony of Hard Alley is that it isn’t Rape at all, and nothing is truly forced. It’s just grown-ups playing cowboys and indians with their genitals. And nobody’s leaving after it’s done thinking they should go do this in the real world. Nobody.
Bear Jharls
Nov 30th, 2009
The Todd Kendall economics paper “Pornography, Rape, and the Internet” referenced by Persophone Bolero states: “These results show that the substitution effect of internet access on rape is statistically significant only for men in the 15-19 age group, and, moreover, that the magnitude of the coefficient is highest for this group as well.”
The paper shows that reported rapes by teenage males, during the period measured, significantly trended downwards. It also shows the number of reported rapes committed by men in the 30-44 age group did not decrease at a similar rate. Indeed, Mr Kendall shows that in the age groups, 30-34 and 40-44, it trended upwards.
For the purposes of his paper, Mr Kendall dismisses the trends by the groups of older men as statistically insignificant. And, within the context of his paper, or perhaps more correctly in the context of the methodology employed within, his dismissal of this can objectively be considered trivial given his major finding.
However, insofar as SecondLife goes his findings may be significant and non-trivial, given the Lab’s own publishing of the age demographic in SecondLife.